Aw I love your family book club idea! (I would rather be remembered for reading than vacuuming too!) I’ve gone through many reading resets and love that you suggested ritualizing your reading. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past few months and it’s been such a good thing for my mental health to leave an hour before bed for a good book, a hot chocolate (or tea) and a Hersey kiss before bed. I’ve found that if I can’t do this routine I feel out of sorts and don’t sleep as well.
I also resonate with taking a book wherever you go! I never leave home without my kindle and either have an audiobook and an ebook or an audiobook and a physical book going at all times.
Happy Birthday Petya! Thank you for sharing a bit of yourself with us. I enjoyed reading this so much, and i’m thinking it would be a good exercise for readers to ask themselves these questions and see what they find about their reading inclinations and habits that maybe they haven’t written down or said out loud. Beautiful writing as always. Here’s to many more years do reading! 📚
Inspired! I recently received a kindle and am working on loving it...keeping it in my purse and being able to pull out a "book" has been good for me, most esp when I'm riding an exercise bike. I'm reading The Frozen River right now and it's great. Thank you for the great reading interview! (and just subscribed to the sewanee review...)
Music to my ears! The Kindle is an acquired taste for sure but the convenience is unbeatable. And better than reading on the Kindle app, which is just a few taps away from the rest of the internet!
Let me know what you think of The Sewanee Review. The podcast is excellent too!
This librarian is inspired by your journey. My favorite reading time is early morning. Caregiving and home tending come later. Classic lit. and Science fiction are my groove.
Happy birthday, Petya! Have a beautiful day and here’s to a shiny, expansive new year ❤️ These words of yours are going into my commonplace journal today: ”…reading and being alive are interconnected”. Amen! xx
I’ve become a ‘reader’ fairly recently and ‘late’ in life and don’t really know why! But, it’s become something that I love and… need. I generally have 2 books going and read in the morning with coffee (non-fiction) and before bed (fiction.) Best way to start and end the day…
I enjoyed this immensely. In particular, while it made feel a bit lacking in the quality of my reading at age 72, I did appreciate that you FINALLY said “read what you enjoy.” For me, I read to escape, or said in a more self-congratulatory way, I learn to feel like I am in different times and places. I can barely abide books about the angst of life in my times or places. Give me Adrian McKinty detective novels set in Belfast or any Victorian classic and I’ll “see you later.”
Oh, I totally get it. I spent so much of last year reading stories of women in the throws of mid-life (women like me).... by the end of the year I felt ... ok, enough. I think we just need different things at different stage of life - from our reading (but from life and for ourselves in general)... Thankfully, there is a book for every place and everyone.
Yes, decided long ago I am not going down as vacuum mom! And also trying my damnedest to balance the need for exercise with the need to read. Happy birthday 🎂. Just like you, to give the gift of a mention to others on YOUR day. Now go party like it’s 1999.
Re: exercise -- the frigid weather we've had does not help. Once it warms up a little bit, I am out with my audiobooks daily! For now, a little hibernation never hurt anyone.
Thank you so much! I love that we found each other!
I do not have a frigid weather excuse. I am just still working on how to balance all the roles, and my need to be able to say “naw, not doing ANY of that right now” with the irrefutable knowledge that outliving my enemies (my true aim in life) requires I move my body and keep my heart strong. Haha.
Happy birthday, Petya!! Loved reading this post & hearing your insights and answers to your “reading life of…” interview questions —wisdom & inspiration abound, as always in your writing :)
I'm new here. Thank you for sharing your reading journey. It's inspired me to consider my own. And document it. Reading may be the great love of my life. Have you posted about books you've have re-read? What is your most re-read book? How many times? What other books do you go back to again and again? Also, my favorite part about the first photo is the vacuum cleaner sitting idle by your pup. And happy birthday.
Aaaawww! Thank you! I was wondering if anyone would notice the vacuum!
It is amazing that you are asking about re-reading books. I almost never reread books. I have such a hang-up about it... I think because I feel so insecure about not being well-read, I keep thinking that I have catching up to do... But I want to begin loosening up about that. I have been thinking of doing a Rachel Cusk month in March and re-reading the Outline Trilogy which I loved the first time around... I am curious to see how I feel about that. Also, my most favorite book of all time is GREAT HOUSE by Nicole Krauss but haven't read it in ten years... I think it's time.
You know I have to ask - which are your most re-read books?
Yesterday( before you asked) I looked back at your January reading and your kick-off of 19th Century Wives Under Pressure....such a great project. I go back to all of those complicated, doomed women. Each one at least every other year. Of those four, I think I've re-read Middlemarch the most. (Dorothea not as doomed) I just love Emma Bovary. She's so motivated by her desires. Tolstoy knew who Anna was. He loved her. And Portrait of a Lady is heart-breaking. She throws away all her mediocre chances to live a prescribed life for reckless authenticity. And from childhood when I need comfort I re-read Alice in Wonderland, Jane Eyre ( not politically correct these days) Lassie Come Home :) Heroines all. I just ordered Great House. Re-reading books is like getting in touch with an old friend and learning all sorts of new things about them.
Correction! I was getting Lily Bart in House of Mirth by Edith Wharton confused with Isabel Archer in Portrait of a Lady. Lily never marries. Hers is a portrait of a single woman under pressure.
Happy Birthday Petya! I hope you have a wonderful book filled day <3 I love all the pics of you reading/choosing books with your daughter mirroring you by your side -- its precious. I am sure it is every mother who reads dream to have a child to follows in their footsteps, its really special! Also - love the acknowledgement of all the things you don't do because you're a reader... I think its so important to remind everyone that we read so much because there is so much we don't do.... People always misunderstand a reader to be someone who is really 'on top' of their life, and I'd argue we are not because we choose reading over basic things like exercise, chores or communication with other people 😂
Yes!!! After I say thank you to all the wonderful birthday notes I got from you guys today, I will get in bed and finish reading Open Throat by Henry Hoke which is wild and delightful.
Aw I love your family book club idea! (I would rather be remembered for reading than vacuuming too!) I’ve gone through many reading resets and love that you suggested ritualizing your reading. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past few months and it’s been such a good thing for my mental health to leave an hour before bed for a good book, a hot chocolate (or tea) and a Hersey kiss before bed. I’ve found that if I can’t do this routine I feel out of sorts and don’t sleep as well.
I also resonate with taking a book wherever you go! I never leave home without my kindle and either have an audiobook and an ebook or an audiobook and a physical book going at all times.
Thank you, Jade. Your book at bedtime with a cup of tea and a Hersey kiss sounds lovely. 🤓📚🥰
Happy Birthday Petya! Thank you for sharing a bit of yourself with us. I enjoyed reading this so much, and i’m thinking it would be a good exercise for readers to ask themselves these questions and see what they find about their reading inclinations and habits that maybe they haven’t written down or said out loud. Beautiful writing as always. Here’s to many more years do reading! 📚
Thank you, EJ. I literally want to know THIS about everyone I meet. 😂😂
Inspired! I recently received a kindle and am working on loving it...keeping it in my purse and being able to pull out a "book" has been good for me, most esp when I'm riding an exercise bike. I'm reading The Frozen River right now and it's great. Thank you for the great reading interview! (and just subscribed to the sewanee review...)
Music to my ears! The Kindle is an acquired taste for sure but the convenience is unbeatable. And better than reading on the Kindle app, which is just a few taps away from the rest of the internet!
Let me know what you think of The Sewanee Review. The podcast is excellent too!
oooh a podcast…thank you :)
Happy birthday, Petya! Thank you for sharing this with us!
Thank you so much for reading and the inspiration, always!
This librarian is inspired by your journey. My favorite reading time is early morning. Caregiving and home tending come later. Classic lit. and Science fiction are my groove.
Thank you so much, Pierre.
Happy birthday, Petya! Have a beautiful day and here’s to a shiny, expansive new year ❤️ These words of yours are going into my commonplace journal today: ”…reading and being alive are interconnected”. Amen! xx
Thank you, Aoife! Honored to be in your commonplace journal! 🥰
I’ve become a ‘reader’ fairly recently and ‘late’ in life and don’t really know why! But, it’s become something that I love and… need. I generally have 2 books going and read in the morning with coffee (non-fiction) and before bed (fiction.) Best way to start and end the day…
Think of all the amazing books that you are reading now, "late in life," and how completely lost they would have been on you earlier!
I enjoyed this immensely. In particular, while it made feel a bit lacking in the quality of my reading at age 72, I did appreciate that you FINALLY said “read what you enjoy.” For me, I read to escape, or said in a more self-congratulatory way, I learn to feel like I am in different times and places. I can barely abide books about the angst of life in my times or places. Give me Adrian McKinty detective novels set in Belfast or any Victorian classic and I’ll “see you later.”
Yes to Adrian McKinty!
The milieu of Belfast during The Troubles was engrossing. May I suggest Philip Kerr and his books set in the mid 1930’s in Berlin?
Now you guys got me looking up Adrian McKinty!
Oh, I totally get it. I spent so much of last year reading stories of women in the throws of mid-life (women like me).... by the end of the year I felt ... ok, enough. I think we just need different things at different stage of life - from our reading (but from life and for ourselves in general)... Thankfully, there is a book for every place and everyone.
My wife will absolutely NOT ever read another WW2 book.
Yes, decided long ago I am not going down as vacuum mom! And also trying my damnedest to balance the need for exercise with the need to read. Happy birthday 🎂. Just like you, to give the gift of a mention to others on YOUR day. Now go party like it’s 1999.
It IS just like Petya to be so generous, isn't it?!
🥹🥹🥹
Re: exercise -- the frigid weather we've had does not help. Once it warms up a little bit, I am out with my audiobooks daily! For now, a little hibernation never hurt anyone.
Thank you so much! I love that we found each other!
Me too— glad to know ya!
I do not have a frigid weather excuse. I am just still working on how to balance all the roles, and my need to be able to say “naw, not doing ANY of that right now” with the irrefutable knowledge that outliving my enemies (my true aim in life) requires I move my body and keep my heart strong. Haha.
Happy happy birthday!! Love this post and this newsletter.
Oh, it's so good to see you, Amy!!! Thank you so much!
Happy birthday, Petya!! Loved reading this post & hearing your insights and answers to your “reading life of…” interview questions —wisdom & inspiration abound, as always in your writing :)
Thank you so much, Regan! Write us something soon!!!
I'm new here. Thank you for sharing your reading journey. It's inspired me to consider my own. And document it. Reading may be the great love of my life. Have you posted about books you've have re-read? What is your most re-read book? How many times? What other books do you go back to again and again? Also, my favorite part about the first photo is the vacuum cleaner sitting idle by your pup. And happy birthday.
Aaaawww! Thank you! I was wondering if anyone would notice the vacuum!
It is amazing that you are asking about re-reading books. I almost never reread books. I have such a hang-up about it... I think because I feel so insecure about not being well-read, I keep thinking that I have catching up to do... But I want to begin loosening up about that. I have been thinking of doing a Rachel Cusk month in March and re-reading the Outline Trilogy which I loved the first time around... I am curious to see how I feel about that. Also, my most favorite book of all time is GREAT HOUSE by Nicole Krauss but haven't read it in ten years... I think it's time.
You know I have to ask - which are your most re-read books?
Yesterday( before you asked) I looked back at your January reading and your kick-off of 19th Century Wives Under Pressure....such a great project. I go back to all of those complicated, doomed women. Each one at least every other year. Of those four, I think I've re-read Middlemarch the most. (Dorothea not as doomed) I just love Emma Bovary. She's so motivated by her desires. Tolstoy knew who Anna was. He loved her. And Portrait of a Lady is heart-breaking. She throws away all her mediocre chances to live a prescribed life for reckless authenticity. And from childhood when I need comfort I re-read Alice in Wonderland, Jane Eyre ( not politically correct these days) Lassie Come Home :) Heroines all. I just ordered Great House. Re-reading books is like getting in touch with an old friend and learning all sorts of new things about them.
Correction! I was getting Lily Bart in House of Mirth by Edith Wharton confused with Isabel Archer in Portrait of a Lady. Lily never marries. Hers is a portrait of a single woman under pressure.
Happy birthday! I really enjoyed this post/stack and will be copying your second hand bookshop book hunt idea.
Please come report back on what you find!!!
Happy Birthday Petya! I hope you have a wonderful book filled day <3 I love all the pics of you reading/choosing books with your daughter mirroring you by your side -- its precious. I am sure it is every mother who reads dream to have a child to follows in their footsteps, its really special! Also - love the acknowledgement of all the things you don't do because you're a reader... I think its so important to remind everyone that we read so much because there is so much we don't do.... People always misunderstand a reader to be someone who is really 'on top' of their life, and I'd argue we are not because we choose reading over basic things like exercise, chores or communication with other people 😂
I laughed out loud reading this. Here to confirm -- most definitely NOT on top of my life!!! Not at all!!!
Happy birthday!!!!
Thank you, Alicia!!!
Happy birthday, and I hope you have found a really great book to read for the occasion. I really enjoyed your Substack post. Thank you.
Yes!!! After I say thank you to all the wonderful birthday notes I got from you guys today, I will get in bed and finish reading Open Throat by Henry Hoke which is wild and delightful.